So I Was In The Shower This Morning And Thinking…

[mmerriam]

…which is always a dangerous thing. I made a post a couple days ago where I said,

Though every short story I have in progress has stalled, I'm still moving along on Rija's Tale.

And it occurred to me this morning why those stories were stalled.

I'm in the wrong headspace.

I'm sure this will come as no surprise to most of my writer friends, who have probably had just this very realization (though not necessarily in the shower) at some point in their writing life. But it struck me, and I had to follow up on it to be sure. I started looking over my records of when I wrote various stories and novels. What I found confirmed my thoughts.

Okay, so, I'm pretty much all over the place with what I write. Urban fantasy, space opera, magical realism, science fantasy, supernatural horror, a little sword & sorcery tossed in for good measure. Sometime I write the pulpiest of pulp-style adventure fiction; sometime I write what some would classify as literary fiction with spec fic elements. I'm still flailing around trying to figure out themes and style and tone and what it is I do (or maybe this is what I do?) as a writer.

So it should come as no surprise the short stories are all stalled. I'm writing a secondary world fantasy novel, am in fact pretty deeply into it at this point, and it's taking up a lot of my headspace. Of the short stories, two are threatening to be magical realism, and the other two have supernatural horror (one with a strong romance element) written all over them. I'm not in the right place mentally to write these stories. I noted that while I was working on the previous novels--all of which are urban or contemporary fantasy--the short stories I completed during that period were also urban fantasy in tone. I wrote a lot of space opera and pulp horror for a period. Stories that were nearly lit fic and magical realism pieces where all clustered together.

As I said: I'm sure this will come as no surprise to writers who have been at this longer than I have, but it made me feel better, discovering more about how I work, and coming to an understanding that working this way is perfectly acceptable.

YMMV

Michael

Comments

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

It is nice to hear someone put it all into words. This makes so much sense to me.

[materia-indigo.livejournal.com]

At least you don't have one of your pseudopods caught in the steel-jaw trap of fanfiction, like I have.

[dmbaird.livejournal.com]

I agree whole-heartedly. The weather can also be a factor for me. For some reason, I find it easier to write the season when I'm IN the season.

And for the record, most of my REALLY brilliant ideas happen in the shower, or just after going to bed. :)

[csinman.livejournal.com]

It definitely happens to me. And I agree with dmbaird about the weather!

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

When I first got serious about writing I could work on short stories and a novel at the same time.

But as I got deeper into novel, that became impossible. The novels and their world grew more complex and I found I could only life in one world at a time.

Not saying that's what's happening to you, but it might be part of it. :)

[ken-schneyer.livejournal.com]

That's a much more reasoned and sensible look at blockage than I usually do. Me, I go out and ask people to give me drabble prompts, just to loosen up the writing muscles...